The event, learning, links, and timeline page have been updated, including photos of the recent Four Corners to Fukushima events. Check back often to find out about more related events coming up, and visit our links page to find out about what other organizations are up to.

A new website, http://www.nuclearfreezone.org, was recently created to house the Four Corners to Fukushima events. Be sure to look at this page for all things against nuclear in the Southwest region!

Join us to learn more about the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and the nuclear industry in the Southwest, to find out about different ways to get involved, and to connect with others who want to build a sustainable future beyond nuclear power/weapons.

On March 9th, in conjunction with anti-nuclear events being held in Japan and in other cities in Arizona, we will meet in front of Arizona Public Service (APS) in Downtown Phoenix, O’odham territory, to raise awareness about the destructive consequences of producing nuclear energy, and to show support for the communities being directly effected by the nuclear industry, in Japan and in the Southwest. APS is one of the main owners of the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant, which is only 45 miles West of Central Phoenix.

Community members, youth, activists, scientists, and many others will touch on all aspects of the nuclear chain, from mining, to mills, to power plants, Los Alamos, waste repositories, and the social and environmental consequences of pursuing nuclear.

All people who believe that nuclear power is not the answer are welcome to join and participate.

A portable PA and a megaphone will be provided. A table with letter writing materials, nuclear info, banner and sign making materials will be available.

+Covered garage parking is a block north of event location (5th St. and Filmore) – $3/hour
+On street parking available
+Free parking at “Park and Ride” lot, 38th st and Washington. Take lightrail going West, get off at Jefferson and 3rd St. Less than a mile walk to event. (Single light rail ride is $2)

March 11th, 2014 marks the third year anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Japan. Triggered by an earthquake and consequential tsunami, the power plant failed and released massive amounts of radioactive materials, irradiating the community and land base around it. The meltdown is the largest nuclear disaster in the world since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

Radiation on both sides of the Pacific ocean have increased by hundreds of percents. Unfathomable amounts of radioactive material have been dumped into the Pacific ocean everyday since the failure in 2011. Still, the fourth unit of the nuclear plant containing a spent waste pool is unstable and could collapse. The fuel in reactors two and three are believed to have melted down and out of their concrete containment vessel. Amongst the urgency to take action, the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) refuse to act entirely responsible. Worldwide media coverage has been sparse.

In spite of this, the nuclear industry in the U.S. continues to “green-wash” their social and environmental footprints. There has even been a renewed push for uranium mining in the Southwest. New nuclear power plants continue to be built and many old plants that are due for decommission have received 30-year extensions on their permits to operate. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission admits there is still no long term plan for power plant waste storage. Some of this waste has a 300,000 year half-life which is longer than modern humans have lived on earth! There is little accountability on the part of mine owners and the government to clean up dangerously radioactive abandoned mines, contaminated water wells and rivers, and financially support those made ill from exposure and consumption of radioactive material.

The Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant located near Arizona’s capitol is the largest nuclear power plant in the country. The plant requires 82 billion gallons a year of Phoenix’s reclaimed wastewater in order to cool it’s reactors and is the only nuclear plant in the U.S. not built near a large body of water. Massive amounts of water are necessary should a meltdown occur, yet Phoenix is already projecting water shortages by 2020. In 2013 contaminated water leakages were found forcing the entire power plant to be evacuated. Palo Verde NPP ranks near the top in the country for safety violations according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

When will we draw the line? Nuclear power and weapons are not sustainable – they are an affront to all life on Earth.

Organize an event in your community on or around March 9th (the day people in Japan are holding their events) to show support for communities directly effected by the nuclear industry and to raise our voices against nuclear power and weapons. Together, we are capable of breaking the nuclear chain!

It has been over a month since we delivered over 1,500 petition signatures to the Kaibab National Forest requesting a new Environmental Impact Statement for the Canyon Uranium Mine. The Canyon Mine is planning to operate under their current, 28-year old one. Please sign this letter, especially if you were born after 1986, asking for a response from the Forest Service.

Email this letter with your signature to nauagainsturanium@gmail.com. We’d like to mail it toward the end of this week.

We are writing to you on behalf of those who signed the petition delivered to the Kaibab National Forest Headquarters on December 13th, 2013. It has been over a month and hundreds of us are still awaiting a comment or personal response from you or your office about supplemental information that deems the current, 28-year old Environmental Impact Statement for the Canyon Uranium Mine as antiquated. Although the Canyon Uranium Mine is currently closed, many people are deeply concerned about this mine, how our, the younger generation, are being excluded from the NEPA process. We are concerned about when it may re-open, its proximity to Red Butte, which is recognized as traditional cultural property, to the Grand Canyon, and important water ways. This is especially true for us, who are were not born or who were too young to take part in the EIS scoping process, who will more directly face potential consequences from the Forest Service’s decision to allow the mine to operate.

The signatories recognize the social and cultural impacts of mining, and the numerous scientific advancements that have happened since 1986 that allow us to better measure the effects of uranium mining on the local environment and hydrology. Youth and new science should require an EIS that reflects the present – that takes new information, and a whole generation, into account.

We sincerely look forward to hearing your response to the petition at your earliest convenience.

Friends,
Please be advised that the following actions are currently taking place and we need your help to tell the Navajo Nation Council Delegates to vote NO on NN Legislation 0373-13.

ADDITIONAL INFO:

2012-07-19 Fully Executed Temporary Access Agreement.pdf

Churchrock Sec.8-ROW PDF

NNC Legislation 0373-13 ROW for URI

22nd Navajo Nation Council’s Contact Information

Public Comments-Tsosie Resolution 0373-13(1)
Navajo Nation Council Delegate Leonard Tsosie of the Resources and Development Committee (RDC) is sponsoring Resolution 0373-13 which allows URI the Right-Of-Way over Tribal Trust land to start ISL URANIUM MINING at Churchrock, “Section 8″. Uranium Resources, Inc or “URI” is a Texas-based company, formerly known as: Hydro Resources Inc. or “HRI” which has contaminated ground water at its other ISL projects and will surely contaminate the groundwater of Eastern Navajo if this project commences. Many communities around Church Rock will be in danger if operations begin and so we need to get the word out.
The RDC is accepting Publc Comments and has scheduled a Special Meeting with this as the main agenda item on Monday December 23, 2013 at 9 A.M. at Chilchinbeto Chapter, Chilchinbeto, AZ (south of Kayenta).
This action by a few elected officials is UNACCEPTABLE!! This will no doubt endanger our community, our children, and the area we call home. Uranium is a poison and mining it is an improper and dangerous use of our water and natural resources!! Uranium should be left in the ground! We cannot regulate it and to think that we have power over nature is arrogant and dangerous. I am asking you to please Send Comments and join many other Dine’ people in saying NO AND TO STOP NEW URANIUM CONTAMINATION at the Special RDC meeting next Monday morning at Chilchinbeto Chapter.
There are drafted Comments for you to use for reference. You can personalize the comments or just cut & paste and email ASAP! Your Chapter can also use these points to draft NEW Chapter Resolutions to Opposing Uranium Mining and Resolution 0373-13 too.
Comments should be emailed to comments@navajo-nsn.gov by tomorrow, Saturday December 21 by 5 P.M. Mountain Time. Letters and written comments should be mailed to: Executive Director, Office of Legislative Services, PO Box 3390, Window Rock, AZ. 86515 postmarked by December 21, 2013.
I ask that you all forward this to all your contacts so that they can also get the word out to STOP Delegate Tsosie’s resolution. Please stand with us in defending our homes and our health. Human life is priceless and we should speak up for our next generation who don’t have a voice now. The young children and generations to come will have to live with our choices today.
Thank you.
Jonathan Perry

TELL THE RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE TO SAY NO TO NEW URANIUM MINING

The Resources Development Committee of the Navajo Nation Council is considering a resolution that would allow a Texas uranium mining company, Uranium Resources, Inc. (“URI”), formerly known as “HRI”, access to tribal lands for uranium mining. The resolution, Resolution 0373-13, is sponsored by Council Delegates Leonard Tsosie and Katherine Benally. The RDC is inviting public comments until December 21, 2013, 5 P.M. Please ask RDC members to say NO to new uranium mining. The RDC should reject the resolution because:

The resolution violates the Diné Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005. In that law, the entire Navajo Nation Council prohibited uranium mining and processing on tribal land. The resolution would allow URI to mine uranium on reservation land in Churchrock. A single committee of the Council cannot overturn legislation passed by the entire Council.

The resolution violates the Radioactive Substances Transportation Act of 2012, which was passed by the entire Navajo Nation Council. That law prohibits transportation of radioactive materials across tribal land, except in limited circumstances that must be approved by the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency.

The resolution conflicts with the access agreement that the Navajo Nation has already negotiated with URI and that does not allow any new uranium mining.

The people of the Navajo Nation have rejected uranium mining because it has never resulted in any meaningful economic development for the Diné – it has only resulted in radioactive air, polluted water, sickness and death.